* Astronomy

The High Possil meteorite fell on the morning of Thursday, 5 April 1804, in a quarry near High Possil, on the northern outskirts of Glasgow. The High Possil meteorite is one of only four ever to have been found in Scotland - the others being the Perth meteorite of 1830, and the Strathmore meteorite, which fell in Perthshire in 1917 of the 1,998 fragments of a stony meteorite reported from a field near Glenrothes in Fife, although this is known to be an older fall, as they are very weathered. The High Possil meteorite was one of a number of falls around the beginning of the 19th Century, which were witnessed, recovered and investigated thoroughly.

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A commemorative stone was  erected to celebrate the first ever meteorite landing in Scotland. The stone was unveiled at its location on the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Possil Marsh Nature Reserve. The meteorite, which fell in High Possil in 1804, was later gifted to the Hunterian Museum where it is currently on display.

"This meteorite, which fell in April 1804, was the first ever recovered in Scotland, and one of the very first scientifically verified falls anywhere. This important scientific event at last has a fitting memorial" - Dr John Faithfull, curator of mineralogy and petrology at Glasgow University's Hunterian Museum.

Along with falls in Yorkshire, India and France, the High Possil meteorite marked the beginning of the modern science of meteorites, which now provides us with most of our detailed knowledge about the early Solar System.

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